I did do a search on this, “Spouse”, “significant other”, nothing extendable returned.
So, I’ll post my thought(s), what do your significant others or spouses imbibe with you? Bonus questions are when and how often if so; where do you differ. Details are elective of course.
Mine’s is not in to wine, unless its in her wheel house or she hears from me that its good and you have to at least give it a spin (aged).
Her wheel house, mostly Cali fruit forward. Belle Glos being her favorite and she does not even know the name but that’s her north star. I order it for her every time for her and it wins. So, Cali fruit forward like that and not bad all said.I true to go off-script, batting is less than .500.
Funny enough, also I can pull the rare right Right Bank Bordeaux (Pun intended) and it can work, I bat .250 there. I think she has Merlot affinity and it has checked out under lesser conditions.
White wines… hit and miss on chubby Chards. Not many grab her there. More red.
I just kinda reflect on this and I laugh to myself (ourselves). A wealth of goodies aging under our feet, some of which amassed from places far and rare, and none of that matters. Except… If in her wheelhouse I’ll let my wife know that I’ll be opening something really, really off the charts. Her ears perk up and a glass had of course. Otherwise, basic restaurant fare.
My wife and my palates align 80+% of the time, Cab, Syrah, blends, some whites, though she almost always requests a red as a “real wine” after a meal. That usually means Syrah in our house because we grow it and she likes it.
Pinot is harder to find one she likes and some Of those and some Syrahs, the really good ones to me, are too “feety” for her. Great! More for me.
Some whites are discarded as “underarm”, but my palate (fortunately I guess) rarely detects underarm.
Overall she has great palate and I use her in my home winery and blending. Feety is the best compliment she can give to one of my wines.
My better half is way less into wine than she was when we first met 11 years ago (I wonder who is to blame for that??). Fast forward to today and she enjoys many refreshing, acidic and well balanced wines but as soon as there is any trace of heat, oakiness or heaviness she drinks at most a glass and that is it. Champagnes go down mostly well but as we recently had a very vinous grower Champagne that clocked in at a whopping 12.5% ABV and did show some of the traits mentioned she had no problem leaving her glass unfinished as she did not find it to suit her palate. Whenever I want to open something I know she’ll like it will be a Blanc de Blancs, Mosel Riesling, Sancerre, traditional Sangiovese or - perhaps more surprisingly - Bandol Rouge.
My spouse likes lush, fruit-driven but complex, and dislikes heat, thin-ness or pruney-ness. That means I have two choices when it comes to Bordeaux and Bordeaux-styled Napa: young blueberry milkshake (think Caymus) that he’ll be ok to drink, or mature high-end stuff (think Dominus, Lynch Bages, Mouton) that he’ll love. Same with Champagne: either generic NV with high-ish dosage (think Pol Roger white label) that he’ll drink, or mature high-end Blanc de Blancs (think Selosse) that he’ll love. You’d think there’d be Veblen-type bias at work but I always withhold the price of a wine until he’s expressed an opinion and he’s been remarkably consistent
Anything that is complex and interesting but doesn’t have big richness, he finds middling at best. I do think he has a better palate than me; it’s more a question of what we are looking for in a wine - for the head or for the heart
When I met my wife, she liked wine but wasn’t a wine drinker. She hates beer and coffee too, FWIW, and would drink mainly Diet Coke if left to her own devices.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve grown to enjoy wine together. I’m thankful that she’s been willing to entertain my ongoing interest in the subject (both professional and personal). Aside from drinking wine together at home or when dining out, she’s attended wine events with me, and we’ve visited wineries all over the West Coast and parts of France and Italy. Her wine palate has pretty much aligned with mine and is very refined. She doesn’t aspire to have the wine vocabulary that I do, but she knows a great bottle when she’s drinking one… often commenting before she knows what she’s drinking.
About the coffee, beer and Diet Coke comment above. What’s strange is that given those qualities you’d think she’d like sweet, concentrated and fruit-forward wines, but her preferences tend very much toward classically-styled and structured. She doesn’t do RS in wines either, so the only thing we can’t enjoy together is a good dessert wine or a white like Riesling that’s any sweeter than off-dry.
My wife likes most of what I like, particularly in reds. Most of what we drink is Burgundy, Bordeaux and Rhone. She likes all the Italian, Spanish and US reds we’ve had too, though she turned up her nose at a 2004 Unico several weeks ago (to be fair, I thought it smelled like Port). Occasionally she won’t like an aged red but it’s usually due to some flaw that I’ll tolerate.
In whites she’s more picky but she likes almost all Champagne, young white Burgundy and most crisp whites. She doesn’t like still whites with oxidative aromas though she seems okay with some in Champagne. No Riesling, Gruner, Gewurtz. Aged whites are usually rejected.
She likes Sauternes and some other sweet whites but no fortified wines. One time she tolerated a 1948 Taylor, though.
My wife loves most wines from my Jura collection (non-oxidative) and Champagne. Piemonte Nebbiolo too. And then VERY light reds (thats why she loves the Jura wines), like some of the more modern Spatburgunder.
Our palates mostly line up as far as red, while she is most found of fruit bombs like Bella Glos and Caymus I can enjoy them for the variety. We can’t go wrong with a good GSM so pretty much anything from Paso hits the mark, Washington reds, CdP. Big Napa Cabs we are in complete agreement on as our top wines. Burgundy I’m more adventurous than her, she’ll drink them but kind of doesn’t see the point if she could have a big Paso GSM. Whites are where we differ in that my preference is mineral driven while she prefers more Cali oaked. She didn’t like Champagne originally because of the bubbles but has since come around after I’ve been exploring more and opening more not just for special occasions. She’s more of a weekend or date night drinker while I enjoy having a glass most nights.
Our preferences overlap enough that we always share bottles of wine. But they diverge enough that we don’t always agree on our favorites.
She does tend to prefer her whites more round and coating (she loves the 2018 Burg vintage) and I prefer slightly more acidity a la '14 and '17. Same thing with Rieslings, she loves the more balanced style vs the piercing acid bombs popular today (although I also prefer more balanced, just slightly more acidity). And she prefers DP to Krug for the same reason and I prefer Krug. But all of these preferences are held fairly lightly and we both drink both styles.
On the red side our palates are even more aligned and we typically have similar notes.
Laura refers to herself as a “civilian.” She loves Champagne and German Riesling, and enjoys Port. She’ll dabble with a few other things, but it’s really all about the bubbles and Riesling.
I am very lucky Renée loves Dry German Riesling, Chablis, White Burgundy, Red Burgundy and has been pulling me into Gamay. Does not like sweet rieslings but is slowly coming around to older ones with certain food pairings. Does not like Bordeaux or Older Cali Cabs but occasionally appreciates a great one. And of course she has a much better palate than me.
My wife’s palate and mine overlap probably 90%, which I’m thankful for. She virtually always wants a red, unless we’re having seafood or something else that seems to obviously call for a white pairing, whereas there are many times when I’m in the mood for a white. We both love Bordeaux varietals, but I find I like my cabs with about 5 more years of age (~15-25 total), my Bordeaux with about 10 more years of age (~20-30 total) and both with a leaner, more earthy character (versus her preference for more fruit forward). We have close to 100% overlap on everything else I can think of that we drink regularly - Oregon pinot, riesling, chards, champagne, port, etc.
I’m definitely the driver of our wine collecting, but thankfully she’s very supportive, which has allowed our collection to get to the point where only people on this board would consider it “normal”
One of the many things Robert Dentice and I have in common is how lucky we are in our spouses!
My situation is unusual in that Jonathan and I came to wine independently, and were both well into our respective wine love when we met. We are now 100% partners in this wine journey. The upside is that, when we married, we joined two solid collections. The downside is that he buys wine as often as I do. Imagine two mad wine lovers going at your credit cards at once!
As for our palates, they are 80% or more aligned. We both love champagne, dry Riesling, burgundy (red and white), Piedmont, Jura, aged Rioja and Madeira, and enjoy old Bordeaux on the right occasions. He has exposed me to more classic CA cabs, which I now love, and eased me into liking Beaujolais. We both feel similarly about the Rhone (only on the right food occasion), and sweet wine (not very often). We came to love easy going Spanish wines, particularly from Galicia, together during our trips there. He still likes cab franc a lot more than I do, and drinks those while I’m away. He also enjoys sangiovese more than I do, though I do like it when the match is right. I, in turn, have gotten him to open up to new and more varied producers. He would buy the same 2 or 3 in each region and never taste anything else, if given the chance.
We usually go glass for glass when we’re drinking, so bottles don’t tend to last until night 2 for us. Sometimes I slow down and pour him heavier - he’s a lot bigger than I am, after all - but more often if I’m done and he wants something else he’ll have a beer. We also both love cocktails.
Jonathan has a superb palate and is a lot more knowledgeable about wine than I am. He has had pretty much every great and famous wine you can think of at one point or another. He’s an absolute fount of information - don’t even get me started on his whisky knowledge! Possibly the best part, though, is that he was cellaring Keller and other dry Germans starting back in the early 2000s. Did I mention I’m a lucky girl?
Yes.
At “5 o-clock somewhere” through dinner.
Nightly.
She likes most everything I open except for Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah although some bottles of both she enjoys. She prefers wines on the lighter side, whites, rosés but loves Zinfandel. She’s not into tannic wines.Went from very fruit forward to wines with more verve and acid structure. We drink a lot of Bedrock, Scherrer, D&R, Briceland, Jolie-Laide, Clothing Optional, Myriad Semillon, Rivers Marie etc
I’m just starting this wine journey but am very fortunate that my wife is doing so with me. She let’s me do all the research and otherwise geeking out but she’ll try whatever I haphazardly put on the table.
My palate is still very much TBD though maybe inclined towards spanish reds at least but hers does trend towards CA fruit-forward, big box type wines. That said, she was fond of a nice '08 Rioja we tried recently. I’ll no doubt be trying to expand our choices. Interestingly neither of us are fond of white wines or ports, having tried both without any great enjoyment.
